Painting the perfect base coat?

[lauraj87]

Hi Salon Geeks,

I have just completed a Manicure course, and have a friend that wants me to paint her nails. I still need loads of practice as it was one of these intense day courses and I didnt feel there was enough practical. However my friend isnt a paying client but I want it to look fab for her. (note: will be doing night school now instead of these courses)

I'm not great at painting the base colour of the polish. I wanted to ask can you use nail art brushes like these...

7Pcs Nail Art Pen Brush Uv Gel Acrylic Painting Drawing Pen Polish Brush | eBay

I saw a video of someone using a square brush to apply a base coat of colour and wondered although these are nail art brushes could you use them for your varnish colour? Is so, how would you clean them?

Any help...much appreciated.

 

[lauraj87]

:Look_right Any Advice?? I know practice makes perfect but I find the small brushes in nail polish quite difficult. Using a larger brush I think would help me.

Would you soak brushes in Acetone??

 

[MissyMuffin]

I would find a brand of polish that suits you. They all have different brushes.
I wouldn't personally bother with seperate brushes, too much faffing and unnecessary cleaning.
Example: I like China Glaze but the brush is too fine for my liking.
If you're going to be taking up gel or Shellac you need to get used to the integral brushes with those so it's worth persevering I think.

 

[hkbawden]

I think using separate brushes would be quite time consuming & fiddly ... Practice practice practice seems to be the way forward.

I love OPI nail lacquer's which have a wide, flat brush, so maybe give OPI a try?

 

[nvc nails]

My advice is to look for a brand that suits you best, including the brushes. In my opinion it does look a little bit clumsy if you use seperate brushes, but that's my opinion.
If you do want to use seperate brushes you can clean them easily with nail polish remover or plain aceton.

 

[kankan]

I found looking at the shellac instructions on cnd site invaluable for polish! I don't use shellac yet but when doing any polish I was taught the first stroke down centre then one either side and I could never get the nice rounded clean line at the cuticle, since doing it how it says in the shellac and vinylux directions it's so much easier!! You basically start in middle where you normally would then sweep round to the side of nail(instead of up middle) and up to the tip, same other side then middle.

 

[lauraj87]

Thanks for eveyones advice

I have a friend coming over the weekend and wants me to try a design on her soooo excited.

 

[nicole333]

Get yourself some blutac and roll it into a sausage shape to represent a finger, then get a cheap box of tips and push one into the blutac to represent a nail. The fact it is pushed in will then recreate side walls and an Eponychium. Keep painting!

This was a tip from Geeg and it is much much cheaper than a nail trainer and easier to store too!